Vijayawada: The role of the private sector is vital in improving the standards in health sector, minister for health Dr Kamineni Srinivas has opined and urged the managements of private hospitals to extend services with a human touch. He asked the private hospitals to adopt new technologies to compete with global players and reduce treatment costs.

Speaking at a programme organised by Aster Ramesh Academic Research (ARAA) here on Sunday, Srinivas said the government could not equip all the government hospitals with facilities to handle organ transplantation due to high costs involved. "A transplantation costs around Rs 23 - Rs 30 lakh. We cannot take up such costly surgeries in government hospitals as we need funds to extend other services," he said.

The minister asked the private hospitals to fill the vacuum in the organ transplantation sector to help at least the affordable sections. He said the government had planned to set up dialysis units at all district headquarter hospitals to provide relief to thousands of patients. The cost of dialysis was reduced to Rs 960 from from Rs 1,250 to help the poor. He showered praises on cardiologist Ramesh Babu for keeping himself updated with the world's best practices to provide quality healthcare to patients.

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A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao passed the order while acting on a PIL filed by Delhi-based dermatologist Zaheer Ahmed who complained that lakhs of medicines were being sold on the internet every day without much regulation, posing a huge risk to patients and doctors alike.